Heretofore, in a camera apparatus by which a picture image of an object picked up by a COD (Charge Coupled Device) is recorded in a recording medium as picture image data, the CCD has been substituted for a photo detector of an infrared remote control unit for infrared light by utilizing such fact that an image pickup device such as CCD can detect infrared light emitted from the infrared remote control unit (see paragraphs [0011] to [0013] in Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 6-22194). The apparatus involves such an advantage that a light-receiving unit for an infrared remote control unit to be equipped on a main body of the apparatus may be eliminated.
However, in the above-described camera apparatus, the remote control unit makes merely the camera apparatus to perform a predetermined operation on the basis of presence of detected infrared light in the CCD, so that the camera apparatus does not enhance user's usability thereof though an elimination of a photo detector is possible.